USDOL Awards Nearly $24 Million in Grants for Job Corps Scholars Program for At-Risk Youth

May 31, 2020

Excited for three community colleges who I worked with to receive these grants. Congrats to Blue Ridge Community and Technical College, WV, Palm Beach State College, FL, and Vance Granville Community College, NC!

These and other awardees will be conducting very important work in helping disadvantaged and underrepresented youth with employment, career counseling, and supportive services to break cycles of generational poverty and lack of educational attainment to gain skills, access to jobs, and high wages. While America overall is a rich and prosperous nation, I’ve grown increasingly concerned about “zip codes of poverty” where communities and families are locked into poverty, don’t have access to employment networks, mentoring, and education, and feel isolated and disillusioned. Programs like Job Corps Scholars are critical demonstration projects to understand the role community colleges play in addressing these economic and social problems. Kudos to the U.S. Department of Labor for funding this important work. Hopefully this is just a first step toward larger systemic improvements in delivering job training and education.

USDOL Announcement

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the awarding of 20 grants totaling nearly $24 million as part of the Job Corps Scholars Program, a new national demonstration project aimed at providing at-risk youth with job skills instruction, educational opportunities and individualized employment counseling.

The grantees include accredited, two-year, public community colleges; accredited, public two- and four-year historically black colleges and universities (HBCU); and accredited tribally controlled colleges and universities (TCCU) that will serve Job Corps-eligible youth and young adults from 16 to 24 years of age.

“As we look towards defeating coronavirus and reopening our economy, the Job Corps Scholars Program provides an innovative way to prepare at-risk youth for participation in the job market,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia said. “Combining job training, classroom education, and employment counseling will give participating young adults an opportunity to excel.”

“The Department of Labor is constantly searching for new and innovative ways to deliver our programs more effectively,” said Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training John Pallasch. “The Scholars program will engage our community college, HBCU, and TCCU partners to provide more opportunities to young adults to access the training and instruction they need to be successful in today’s job market.”

Supported by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2014 (Sec. 156(a) (29 U.S.C. 3193 (a)) and Sec. 189(c) (29 U.S.C._3249(c)), the Department expects grantees beginning in the fall semester of 2020 to provide the services throughout each student’s participation in the 12-month career technical training component. Up to 12 months of employment counseling services will follow upon separation from the Job Corps Scholars Program.

Through this project and its other partnerships with accredited post-secondary educational institutions, Job Corps strengthens the connection between workforce development and education. This demonstration project will also provide the Department with insight into ways to improve the effectiveness of the Job Corps program. Additional details about the Job Corps Scholars Program, including how grantee performance outcomes are measured, are included in the funding opportunity announcement.

The mission of the Department of Labor is to foster, promote and develop the welfare of the wage earners, job seekers and retirees of the United States; improve working conditions; advance opportunities for profitable employment; and assure work-related benefits and rights.

Ed. Note: A list of grantees follows this release.